“We thought we were going to lose our son and our hearts were desperate.

“But Alfie had other ideas, he managed to beat the infection and start breathing on his own again.

“Time and time again, despite not being diagnosed or treated for any suspected underlying disease, his seizures being somewhat controlled by a heavy cocktail of sedating drugs, Alfie has come back over and over from every infection and challenge.

“The hospital claims that Alfie is “insensate” and unaware of any stimulus or irritation, which is proven wrong in hundreds of videos, against the odds of a heavy cocktail of anti-seizure drugs with sedative effect.

“We Alfie’s parents have the right and responsibility to make decisions to save him and move him to a hospital who will honour those decisions. Give Alfie his rightful chance at life!”

An Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has previously said they are unable to comment on individual cases, adding: “We understand that this is an incredibly difficult time for the family concerned and we continue to liaise directly with them.

“Alder Hey is a specialist children’s hospital which therefore means we treat many children with often complex, life threatening conditions.

“Unfortunately despite the best efforts of our clinicians, some of these children are sadly unable to recover from their illness.”

The statement continued: “We will always seek to reach agreement with parents of the child concerned but there will be some rare situations where agreement cannot be reached and the treating team believe that continued active treatment is not in a child’s best interests.

“In these cases the Trust will refer a case to the Family Division of the High Court and seek a determination as to the best interests of the child.”